Tracking tags sewn to invading Asian hornets to help save bees
BRITAIN’S beekeepers are turning to technology to prevent aggressive Asian hornets destroying their colonies.
In a first successful trial, experts at the University of Exeter attached tracking devices to the backs of the hornets and followed them back to their nests.
The project, carried out in southern France and Jersey, found five previously undiscovered nests, which were then destroyed to protect nearby hives.
Asian hornets are spreading in Jersey and have been reported in southern England, the Home Counties and the North West. A nest can contain 6,000 hornets, each of which can devour up to 50 honey bees in a day, but they are notoriously difficult to find.
The project was jointly funded by beekeepers and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), as part of the Government’s efforts to prepare for future invasions of the Asian hornet. Prof Juliet Osborne, a co-author on the study and director of the Environment and Sustainability Institute on Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall, said: “It is vital to find the nests early in the season to prevent the hornet spreading, as later in the year hundreds of new queens emerge and disperse from each nest, each with the potential to make new nests.
Nicola Spence, Defra’s deputy director for plant and bee health, said: “This work is key for ensuring a rapid response to Asian hornets when sightings are confirmed, and in future bee inspectors will be able to use this technique to take swift action.”
The Exeter researchers used the smallest radio tags available – made by UK firm Biotrack Ltd – and attached them to hornets with sewing thread.
“Our new method of tracking offers a really important new tool to tackle the spread of this invader, providing an efficient means of finding hornets’ nests in urban, rural and wooded environments,” said Dr Peter Kennedy, the lead researcher.
A spokesman for the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said: “The BBKA is greatly concerned about the possible incursion by the Asian hornet because of the devastation likely to be caused to honey bees and other pollination insects.”
The research was published in the journal Communications Biology.